Operas by Rameau in New Orleans, Berlin and Oldenburg
The first of this season’s performances is at the New Orleans Opera, which presented the one-act “Pigmalion” on 8 November in its Petit Théâtre, using the brand-new critical new edition, conducted by Artistic Director Robert Lyall and directed by Brenna Corner. On 16 February 2019 Theater Oldenburg will stage the comédie lyrique “Les Paladins” for the first time using the critical new edition. And before then, on 15 November, Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden presents one of the major five-act tragédies en musique, “Hippolyte et Aricie”, in the late version of 1733/1757. The Oldenburg production team includes conductor Alexis Kossenko and director François de Carpentries. In Berlin no less than Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. The director is the London dancer and choreographer Aletta Collins. The three fatefully-interlinked main characters of Phèdre, Hippolyte and Aricie are sung by Magdalena Kozená, Reinoud Van Mechelen and Anna Prohaska in a high calibre cast. (photo: Étienne-Maurice Falconet: Pygmalion and the statue (1763), Walters Art Museum Baltimore)